Kenny Wheeler 75th Birthday Orchestra: Adrian Boult Hall
The evening built elegantly from a septet to octet and finally a 22-piece orchestra. It was the ideal way to structure an evening of trumpeter and composer Kenny Wheeler's music.
Kind Folk began with a solid-as-an-oak bass introduction from Dave Holland, before the leader's flugelhorn and Lee Konitz's tart alto washed in on a wave of Martin France cymbals, John Parricelli guitar and Gwilym Sim-cock piano.
Here was a chance to savour Wheeler's gorgeous and always poignant tone and his oblique improvisations with their characteristic smears and choked harmonic cries. Here too was a chance to become reacquainted with the strange logic of a Konitz solo.
Many were probably hearing Simcock for the first time. Wheeler's pianist has so often been the wondrous John Taylor, so the young man more than 50 years Kenny's junior had some large shoes to fill. His first explosive solo and the audience's cheers suggested any fears were groundless.
As the band expanded so did the richness of Wheeler's writing and the enjoyment to be found in it by soloists like Stan Sulzmann, Barnaby Dickinson, Julian Arguelles, Norma Winstone and Evan Parker.
The first set ended with a storming reading of W.W.
The second half comprised Wheeler's commission for this tour, unimaginatively titled Suite 2005. Rest assured, imagination was not lacking in the composition. Rarely have we heard such consistently radiant music from this reticent man. The rhythms were light, from bossa to waltz, the horns forceful and muscular, and the solo interludes full of fireworks.
A full house had been buzzing with anticipation beforehand and was purring with contentment at the end. And Kenny? Well, as usual, once there was no more music to be made he just looked anxious as anything to get away from all the adulation and out of the limelight.
